What percentage should labor be for catering?

Plan on about 25–35% of your price, alongside a food cost of roughly 28–35%. Drop-off events sit at the low end because there's little on-site labor; full-service and plated events sit at the top because you're staffing the whole day. Together, food and labor are your prime cost.

How do I charge for my own labor as a solo caterer?

Pick an hourly rate you'd have to pay to replace yourself — often $20–$30 for a skilled cook — and put every hour on the job at that rate, including shopping, prep, setup, service, and the drive. Build that total into the price rather than showing it as a line on the client's quote.

Should I show a labor line on the catering quote?

Usually no. Build labor into the per-person or total price the client sees. The exception is on-site staffing the client is choosing to add, which is fair to show as an explicit upgrade line.

What is prime cost in catering?

Prime cost is food cost plus labor cost. For most catering jobs it lands around 55–65% of the price. Overhead and profit come out of the remaining third, so if food and labor together climb much past that band, there's little margin left.

Why am I busy but not making money catering?

Almost always because the quotes count food but not labor — especially the owner's own prep, setup, and admin hours. Add a real labor percentage and pay yourself a real hourly rate, and the same volume of work starts actually paying.

Catering labor cost: the % solo caterers forget

Your hands aren't free. The most common reason a busy caterer stays broke is a quote that priced the food and forgot the labor — especially their own. Here's how to set a labor percentage, why it belongs on every job, and how to fold it in without scaring off the client.

The short answer. Plan for labor to run roughly 25–35% of your catering price, on top of a food cost of about 28–35%. Together those are your prime cost — usually 55–65% of the price — and the rest covers overhead and profit. If you've never charged for your own prep and service time, that's the money that's been leaking.

Why labor is the line that hides

Food cost is easy to see — you paid for the brisket, you have the receipt. Labor is invisible because a lot of it is your own time, and you don't hand yourself a paycheck. So it never makes it onto the quote.

But the hours are real:

Prep labor: shopping, the day-before cooking, portioning, packing.
Service labor: load-in, setup, running the event, refills, breakdown, the drive home.
Admin labor: the emails, the tasting, the menu revisions before the deposit.

On a staffed event, service labor alone can rival the food cost. Leave it off the quote and you didn't discount the job — you worked it for free (the full autopsy of where these hours hide is at What a $2,500 catering job actually costs).

Two ways to price labor (use both as a check)

Method 1 — the percentage. Set a target labor percentage of the price and build it in. For most small caterers, 25–35% is the working band:

Drop-off: low labor, so a smaller percentage — you're delivering, not staffing.
Buffet setup: middle of the band.
Full-service / plated: the top of the band or beyond, because you're staffing the whole event.

Method 2 — count the hours. Estimate the actual hours and pay them at a real rate, including your own:

Prep 8 hrs + event 6 hrs + your helper 6 hrs = 20 hrs
20 hrs × ~$23 avg = $460 in labor

Then check that $460 against your percentage. If your price is $1,500, that's about 31% labor — right in the band. If the hours say $460 but your percentage only budgeted $300, your price is too low for the work involved. The two methods keep each other honest.

Pay yourself a real rate

The number solo caterers get wrong is their own hourly rate. Don't value your time at zero, and don't value it at minimum wage either — you're a skilled cook and the business owner. Pick a rate you'd have to pay someone to replace you (a working number for a skilled cook is often $20–$30/hour), and put every hour on the job at that rate, including prep and the drive.

If a "$2,500 job" only pays you $8/hour once you count all your hours, that's not a profitable job — it's a hobby with extra steps. The fix is almost never working faster; it's pricing the hours in.

How to fold labor in without scaring the client

Clients don't want to see a "labor: $460" line any more than they want to see your food cost. So don't show it — build it into the price. The per-person or total number the client sees already carries the labor; your breakdown stays on your side of the table (that's the whole point of the Catering quote template that wins jobs structure).

The exception: staffing as an explicit upgrade. For events where the client chooses between drop-off and a staffed line, it's fair and clear to show "add on-site staffing: +$X." That's a service the client is opting into, not your hidden cost.

Labor plus food is only two-thirds of the story

Once labor and food are both on the page, you're at prime cost — 55–65% of the price. The remaining third has to cover overhead (insurance, packaging, fuel, software) and your profit. Price so that all of it fits before you send the quote, not after (see How much to charge for catering for 50 guests). And keep food itself honest first — the 28–35% rule is the anchor everything else builds on (see Food cost percentage for caterers: the 28–35% rule).

A quick way to estimate the hours

If counting hours feels vague, use rough per-event buckets and adjust from experience. For a mid-size buffet (around 50 guests):

Bucket	Typical hours
Shopping	1.5–2
Prep / cooking (day before + day of)	5–8
Load, drive, setup	1.5–2.5
On-site service (if staffed)	length of event + 1
Breakdown + drive home	1–1.5
Admin (tasting, emails, revisions)	1–2

Add the buckets that apply, multiply by your rate, and you have a defensible labor number in two minutes. Drop-off skips the on-site service line entirely, which is exactly why it's cheaper. A staffed event adds it — plus your helper's hours — which is why full-service costs more per person. Track the real hours on your next few jobs and your buckets get sharper fast.

See what labor does to your margin

The fastest way to stop under-billing your own time is to watch the margin move. Put your food cost, labor percentage, and overhead into the calculator and it shows your real margin and suggested price — the same costing math CaterKit runs, so what you see is what a live quote would show.